Zbigniew Werner

The wettability of nitrogen and argon implanted WC-Co indexable knives used for wood-based material machining. An attempt was made to examine the effect of the depth profiles of the implanted ions on the wettability of ion implanted WC-Co tools used for wood-based material machining. The tests were carried for two types of the tool surfaces, i.e. initial and polished, two commonly used gases, i.e. nitrogen and argon, and for the values of the parameters, possible to control in the case of classic ion implanters. Four depth profiles were modelled for two different values of the acceleration voltage, two for each implanted element. The modelling parameters were selected so that the two modelled depth profiles for both implanted elements were similar. The wettability tests were carried using a computer-supported test stand. The obtained results did not confirm the hypothesis about the relationship between the wettability and the position and the shape of the depth profiles.

The paper presents the preliminary results of cellulose modification by ion implantation. Three types of ions were implanted, i.e., copper, zinc and silver with fluences of 5 × 10¹⁴ and 5 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻², respectively. The acceleration voltage of the implanted ions was 30 kV. The ion penetration depth profiles showed differences, especially in the Cu and Ag cases, due to the different ion beams of these elements. The implantation of cellulose with ions clearly changed the wettability of the material surface in the direction of hydrophobicity. The impact of implantation on the growth of the cellulose surface by mold fungi was also noticeable. Only the silver ion implantation had a negative effect on the growth of the Trichoderma viride fungus but did not cause a complete inhibition of growth. Cellulose implantation with Cu and Zn ions clearly stimulated the growth of fungi on the surface of the polymer.

The paper describes the recovery effects of pulsed electron beam treatment in Ge single crystals implanted with various doses of Sn ions at room and low temperatures. A protective coat of 100 nm Sn was applied as a sacrificial layer. The implanted layers were studied by RBS/cRBS (Rutherford BackScattering Spectrometry/channelled Rutherford BackScattering Spectrometry) method, SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy). Defects revealed in channelled RBS spectra were analysed by McChasy code. The results show that the Sn concentration attains 1% and more with very good substitutionality. They also reveal excellent lattice recovery after e-beam melting. Suggestions are derived as regards further improvement of pulsed e-beam technique.

The paper presents the effect of nitrogen ion implantation on the tool life of the tools commonly used in the furniture industry for drilling particleboards. Nitrogen ions with different accelerating voltages of 25, 40, 55, and 70 kV and a fluence of 5 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻² were implanted into the surface of commercially available high-speed steel (HSS) drills, using the implanters without mass-separated ion beams. The tests were carried out in a computerized numerical control (CNC) machining center used in the furniture industry. Based on the measurements of the direct tool wear indicator (W), the drill wear curves were determined and the relative tool life index, standard deviation, coefficient of variation, and the implantation quality index of tool life were calculated. The studies have shown that the modification of the drill surface layer by the nitrogen ion implantation process increases the tool life. The obtained results allow the research to be the continued in a wider scope.

Monocrystalline ZnO samples were implanted with Co (transition metal) and with Ar and Kr noble gas ions, with energies and doses leading to comparable damage in the host lattice as regards its extension and magnitude. Structural properties of the implanted ZnO were investigated by channeled Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (cRBS), aided with calculations using McChasy code. It was shown that the damage produced by implantation does not reach an amorphization level in all cases and is produced deeper in the crystal in comparison with theoretical predictions. The range and magnitude of damaged region are comparable in all cases of ion implantation.

The paper is dedicated to the life prolongation of the tools designed for deep-hole drilling. Among available methods, an ion implantation process was used to improve the durability of tungsten carbide (WC)-Co guide pads. Nitrogen fluencies of 3 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻², 4 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻² and 5 × 10¹⁷ cm⁻² were applied, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) measurements were performed for both nonimplanted and implanted tools. The durability tests of nonimplanted and the modified tools were performed in industrial conditions. The durability of implanted guide pads was above 2.5 times greater than nonimplanted ones in the best case, presumably due to the presence of a carbon-rich layer and extremely hard tungsten nitrides. The achieved effect may be attributed to the dissociation of tungsten carbide phase and to the lubrication effect. The latter was due to the presence of pure carbon layer with a thickness of a few dozen nanometers. Notably, this layer was formed at a temperature of 200 °C, much smaller than in previously reported research, which makes the findings even more valuable from economic and environmental perspectives.

Gallium phosphide can be considered as a prospective material for impurity band solar cell (IBSC), if sufficient amount of an appropriate impurity (Ti in our case) is introduced to the material by e.g. ion implantation without distorting the crystallographic order, necessary to maintain the semiconducting properties of the host. In our experiments, the crystallographic order (damaged by ion implantation) is restored by electron pulse annealing (EPA). When the EPA process using subthreshold electron pulse energy density is studied by RBS technique, a peculiar electron-pulse induced lattice reconstruction is observed, consisting in growth of the damaged region beyond the range observed after ion implantation. This phenomenon is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results and interpreted in terms of melting nuclei formed around the implanted ions in a material with high sublimation pressure.